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MuseScore

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MuseScore
Original author(s)Werner Schweer
Developer(s)Werner Schweer, Nicolas Froment, Thomas Bonte, and others.
Stable release
1.2 / March 13, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-03-13)[1]
Repository
Written inC++
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows, Linux, Mac
Available in48 languages (see below)
TypeScorewriter
LicenseGNU General Public License
Websitemusescore.org

MuseScore is a free musical notation program for OS X, Windows and Linux. Created by Werner Schweer, it is released as free and open-source software under the GNU General Public License.

It is a complete scorewriter and notation editor with a feature set comparable to Sibelius or Finale, and supports a wide variety of file formats and input methods.

History

MuseScore was originally created as a fork of the MusE sequencer’s codebase. At that time, MusE included notation capabilities and in 2002, Werner Schweer, one of the MuSE developers, decided to remove notation support from MusE and fork the code into a stand-alone notation program.[2] Since then, MuseScore has been under constant active development.

The MuseScore.org website was created in 2008,[3] and showed great results with a spike in the number of MuseScore downloads. By December 2008, the download rate was up to 15,000 monthly downloads.

Version 0.9.5 was released in August 2009, which was stable enough for daily or production use, and support for Mac OS X was added.[4] By October 2009, MuseScore had been downloaded more than 1000 times per day.[5] By the fourth quarter of 2010, the number of MuseScore daily downloads had tripled.

MuseScore 1.0 was finally released in February 2011. This milestone release focused on stability rather than new features. This was soon followed by the release of MuseScore 1.1 in July 2011, which was downloaded nearly 1 million times. This 1.1 release fixed around 60 bugs and also featured improved jazz sheet support. MuseScore Connect, a landmark feature allowing on-line community interaction and publishing, was also included in this release.

In March 2012, MuseScore 1.2 was released.[6] This version included over 100 bug fixes, improved MusicXML importing and exporting, as well as improved support for special characters. This release is the current stable version, recommended for daily use.

MuseScore 2.0 is currently under development, with many new features planned. No release date has yet been announced.

Version history

There is no specific release schedule for MuseScore, but new versions are released when the developers consider them ready for release.

  • Version 0.9.5 was released in August 2009. This was the first stable version, as well as the first version to support Mac OS X.
  • Version 0.9.6 was released in June 2010.[7]
  • Version 1.0 was released in February 2011.
  • Version 1.1 was released in July 2011, both to fix bugs in 1.0 and to introduce new features.[8]
  • Version 1.2 was released in March 2012 with many new features and bug fixes.[9] This is the current stable version, recommended for daily use.
  • Version 2.0 is currently under development.[10] No release date has yet been announced.

Features

MuseScore’s main purpose is the creation, editing and printing of various types of musical scores in a “What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get” environment.[11] It supports most types of notation, including jazz lead sheets, and prints or exports high quality engraved sheets. MuseScore’s notation engine conforms to industry notation standards.

Notation be played back by the user through the built-in sequencer and sample library.[12] Other sample libraries in the SoundFont format can also be installed by the user. Chorus, reverb and other effects are also supported during playback.[13]

MuseScore natively supports part extraction, MIDI input, unlimited staffs, percussion notation, cross-staff beaming, lyrics and multiple verses.[14] The functionality of MuseScore can be further extended by making use of its plugin system.[15]

Supported file formats

MuseScore can natively import MusicXML, MIDI, Band-in-a-Box, capella (in the cap3 format, not CapXML) and Overture formats, as well as its own MuseScore format.[16] It can export to MusicXML, MIDI, and LilyPond file formats. Audio can be exported to WAV and Ogg files, and engraved output can be exported to PDF, SVG, PNG, and PostScript formats, or it can be printed directly.

Although MuseScore cannot natively import Sibelius and Finale file formats, its support of MusicXML makes sharing between the different programs easy and straight-forward.

Online publishing

The MuseScore Connect feature allows musicians to publish and share their music on-line at the MuseScore.com social website.[17] MuseScore.com allows paying subscribers to share their scores created in MuseScore through this feature. Free accounts are also available, but users are limited to 5 scores.[18] MuseScore Connect is a default feature in MuseScore.

MuseScore.com allows playback of a score in any browser supporting HTML5 tags. A score can also be linked to an on-line video, so that one may follow the sheet music while watching a video featuring that score.

Mobile Version

A mobile version of MuseScore is available for iOS devices.[19] An Android version is planned for the near future. The mobile version allows for the playback of scores, but does not support the creation or editing of scores.

Internationalization and localization

MuseScore is available in 48 languages, including Afrikaans, Arabic, Asturian, Basque, Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, English, French, Galician, German, Farsi, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Danish, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Traditional Chinese, Traditional Chinese (Taiwan), Ukrainian, Polish, Romanian, Catalan, Greek, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Slovene, Faeroese, Slovak, Lithuanian, Croatian, Belarusian, Vietnamese, Esperanto, and Persian, although some translations are incomplete at this stage.

Development

MuseScore is free and open-source, and thus, any developer is free to view, edit and submit code to the project. Werner Schweer, Nicolas Froment and Thomas Bonte[20] are the full-time and lead developers of the project, with a wider community also contributing.

The development of MuseScore takes place on GitHub so as to host the code and manage the collaboration of developers. GitHub is based on Git, a revision control suite initially designed for Linux kernel development. Anyone can fork the code of the program, make modifications, and submit them for review.[21] Unstable builds created during development are available for download to be tested by volunteers. Those in turn post the problems found in an issue tracker. Anyone can also submit requests for new features. A large amount of the discussions concerning the development takes place on the MuseScore forums.

MuseScore is written in mainly in C++, it fully supports both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms, and the graphical user interface makes use of the cross-platform Qt toolkit.

Support

The MuseScore.org forums are active and provide free community support. Developers also frequent the forums so as to provide support. A complete handbook is also available free of charge from the MuseScore.org site.[22]

Adoption

The large number of daily downloads points to a high level of adoption by individual users. Many Linux distributions also include MuseScore in their software libraries,[23] such as in the Ubuntu Software Center. MuseScore was also included in the VALO-CD collection, which provides free software for Windows.[24]

Many educational institutions also make use of MuseScore, including Drew University and the Ionian University.[25] The Board of Education of La Seigneurie des Milles-îles in Canada has also made MuseScore available on 10,000 computers across schools in the Milles-îles region in Quebec.[26]

MuseScore and the Goldberg Variations

In 2011, a project was launched to create high-quality print and audio versions of the Goldberg Variations.[27] A Kickstarter campaign was launched and the fund-raising goal was met. MuseScore developers and musician Kimiko Ishizaka collaborated to create both an engraved score and an audio recording.

The final engraved score was created entirely in MuseScore, and is available for download free of charge.[28]

See also

References

  1. ^ "MuseScore 1.2 is released". musescore.org. 2012-03-13. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
  2. ^ Dave Phillips, "At the Sounding Edge: Music Notation Software, the Final Installment," Linux Journal (6 April 2006).
  3. ^ Bonte, Thomas. "The State of MuseScore". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  4. ^ Bolton, David. "New Features MuseScore 0.9.6". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  5. ^ SourceForge, "MuseScore Project download statistics"
  6. ^ "MuseScore 1.2 is released". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  7. ^ http://musescore.org/en/node/6010
  8. ^ http://musescore.org/en/musescore-1.2
  9. ^ "MuseScore 1.2 is released". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  10. ^ Froment, Nicolas. "Roadmap for MuseScore 2.0". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  11. ^ "MuseScore". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  12. ^ "SoundFont". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  13. ^ "Change and adjust sounds". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  14. ^ "Features". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  15. ^ "Plugins". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  16. ^ "File Format". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  17. ^ "Share scores online". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  18. ^ "Help". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  19. ^ "A Christmas update from MuseScore". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  20. ^ "MuseScore user & developer meetup at FOSDEM 2010". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  21. ^ http://musescore.org/en/development
  22. ^ "Handbook". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  23. ^ "Download".
  24. ^ "Musescore". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  25. ^ "Schools & Universities using MuseScore". MuseScore. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  26. ^ Bonte, Thomas. "MuseScore installed on 10,000 computers in Quebec". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  27. ^ Douglass, Robert. "Open Goldberg Variations - Setting Bach Free". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  28. ^ "Open Goldberg Variations".
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